Brief Biography:

Gerry Fitt was born in Belfast and after leaving school at an early age served with the British merchant navy (1941-53). After leaving the service Fitt then became involved with the labour movement in his native city and was elected as a public representative for the first time in 1958 when he took a seat on Belfast City Council (1958-81). At the 1962 Northern Ireland general election he was returned for the Dock constituency in the Stormont parliament (1962-72) as a member of the Republican Labour Party (RLP). Four years later at the 1966 British general election Fitt became the new RLP MP for West Belfast (1966-70) and immediately on taking his seat sought to overturn a ruling that prevented domestic matters relating to Northern Ireland being discussed at Westminster. In addition he successfully sought to interest a significant number of Labour backbench MPs to investigate claims of alleged discrimination by the Unionist authorities against the minority Catholic community in Northern Ireland.

With the growing civil unrest of the late 1960s Fitt then severed his ties with the RLP and became one of the founding members of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in August 1970. Fitt was chosen as the party's first leader (1970-79) and went onto represent it at both Stormont (1970-72) and Westminster (1970-79). Later in June 1973 he was returned to the Northern Ireland Assembly (1973-74) and with the SDLP agreeing to join the power sharing Executive in January 1974 Fitt served as Deputy Chief Executive (January-May 1974). After the Assembly and Executive in May 1974 he led the SDLP into the Constitutional Convention (1975-76) but after it too failed to bring any agreement his relationship with the party became increasingly strained. In particular Fitt disagreed with the SDLP's growing determination to ensure that any future political settlement in Northern Ireland would have to involve a major role for the Irish government. As a result his position as party leader became increasingly untenable and finally in 1979 he resigned the position and also left the SDLP.

For a period Fitt continued to sit at Westminster as an Independent MP (1979-83) but his long-term condemnation of the Republican movement often left him a frequent target for verbal and personal attack. This was also eventually to impact on his political career and in 1981 his opposition to the Republican hunger strikes saw him lose his council seat. With the growing electoral strength of Sinn Féin (SF) Fitt lost his West Belfast seat at the 1983 Westminster general election to the SF candidate, Gerry Adams. Later that year he decided to accept the offer of a life peerage from the British government and subsequently took his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Fitt of Bell's Hill (1983-present).

Book References:

Elliott, Sydney. and Flackes, W.D. (1999), Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1999. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Ramsden, John (ed.) (2002), The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century British Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McAllister, Ian.(1977), The Northern Ireland Social Democratic and Labour Party: Political Opposition in a Divided Society. London: Macmillan.
McRedmond, Louis. (ed.) (1998), Modern Irish Lives: Dictionary of 20th-century Biography. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
Murray, Gerard. (1998), John Hume and the SDLP: Impact and Survival in Northern Ireland. Dublin: Irish Academic Press.

Web Sources:

[Entry written by B.Lynn - 30 March 2003]